The importance
of venetian culture
and language
"Venetian is historically the language of Venetian people": this is the definition that the law passed by the Regional Council gives to
venetian language, intending to preserve, enhance and promote it.
A language made of many parlances and dialects having in common the same linguistic root. A
cultural heritage to be preserved and enhanced in adherence and respect to what established by the European Charter of Regional and minority languages ,and of which the Region undertakes to favour the knowledge and diffusion, by a series of direct activities.
It will be optionally studied at school and teachers will attend training courses; its official spelling and use in toponymy will be codified. The Region undertakes to foster and promote
its teaching and learning,
the journalistic and broadcast information,
the artistic creation,
the edition and spread of books and publications,
the organization of specific sections in public libraries,
the research,
and the execution of activities and meetings in order to promote its use and knowledge.
A language that, inside the Region,
is usually spoken by seven inhabitants on ten, that is by almost
three millions people and also by many communities all over the world; a remarkable part of the documents concerning the history of Italy ,that part made of relations between the diplomats of Serenissima, the most long-lived Republic of humanity, is written in venetian.
One of the greatest playwrights of all times,
Carlo Goldoni, performed all over the world, wrote his works in venetian ; and in venetian writes today one of the greatest living poets,
Andrea Zanzotto;
the international commercial agreements, kept in Greece, Turkey and all over the Mediterranean area, have been written in venetian for many centuries, before the italian even existed.
Sociologist Sabino Acquaviva writes:
“If language isn’t preserved, identity dies. I remember that,when parents speak to their children in a language different from their own, when they prevent them from speaking their language, when they tell them that it wouldn’t be correct to express themselves in what they consider a dialect, and above all ,when children are ashamed to speak it outside their homes, at that point the survival of those people’s identity is at the end. Venetian is therefore a language to be preserved and taught at school, not just for one hour a week but on a big scale, almost as italian”
(S. ACQUAVIVA, Identità veneta, Venice 1999, p.27).
For these reasons, the regional Council has given birth, inside the e-democracy portal “Terzoveneto” and, mainly, in the section dedicated to young people and students, to
a web environment about venetian language with the domain : www.linguaveneta.it .
It is a file containing
the most useful tools to understand and appreciate it: the grammar,the unitary venetian writing manual, the vocabulary, the instantaneous translator italian-venetian and english-venetian, the subsidiary, the preservation rules enacted by the Region, the links to the so-called minority european languages and much more.
In collaboration with "VENETO NOSTRO" Cultural Association -